Florida debates offshore drilling as Brazil gets U.S. loan to drill

by Kay B. Day

Gull at the beach near Mickler's Landing in Jacksonville. [Photo by Kay B. Day]The coming legislative session in the state of Florida will see pro-drillers and anti-drillers take up political arms in the debate over drilling for oil off Florida’s coast. Already various newspapers are running editorials and commenters, true to form, are expressing opinions. Within the argument are contradictions and rhetoric from both sides.

One commenter at the TC Palm wrote, “There's a massive, ongoing oil spill right now off the shores of Australia being referred to as the Montara spill. The rig is new, and incorporates the latest safety technologies that are being touted as able to protect Florida.”

The “massive ongoing spill” in Australia was described by Bloomberg News as, “Oil, gas and condensate …seeping into the Timor Sea at the company’s Montara well.” The company doing the drilling is based in Thailand.

The Australian government has information about the spill, and apparently damage is containable and fixable. Because the oil exploration company is a foreign entity, it’s hard to determine whether foreign companies are bound by the same regulations as Australia’s domestic companies.

While Democrats in Washington tend to side with extremely restrictive environmental groups against American companies, the administration appears to think drilling by other companies is okay. The Wall Street Journal pointed out recent U.S. loans to Brazil’s state-owned oil company—$2 billion—for offshore drilling off the coast of Brazil.

In February Cuba announced exploratory drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. US News and World Report said, “Cuba believes it has major oil reserves in its waters. But the prospect of exploratory drilling—followed by likely future commercial drilling—in the Florida Straits has fired controversy in the United States, with the expectation that someday, foreign oil firms could be drilling as close as about 50 miles from parts of Florida.”

In Florida there are the usual pro-driller and anti-driller arguments. Anti-drillers are concerned about the impact on tourism and the environment. Pro-drillers say technology has changed and spills are possible now because tankers already bring oil to the East coast. A petroleum industry consultant wrote in The TC Palm, “Yet each day, Florida relies largely on regular fuel imports from ships and tankers to supply about 28.5 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. That works out to about 10.4 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel a year — or enough to fill Shamu’s tank at Sea World in Orlando 1,485 times.”

Many who want drilling see increasing U.S. oil supplies as a means of reducing reliance on imports and as a bridge to alternative forms of energy, with some revenues going to support development of renewables. The Florida Times Union quoted Bruce Kershner, executive director of the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, on support for funding new energy sources via drilling: “The only way we can do that is if we can ramp up programs for renewable energy and particularly for solar.”

The Times-Union also said, “[A] state rebate program aimed at sparking development of the solar program has consistently run out of any funding poured into it.”

Bringing the debate forward, Florida State University, Gannett Florida and the Tallahassee Democrat will co-host a public forum. Sport Fishing Magazine said the forum will focus, “on the proposal to open Florida waters to offshore energy exploration and production. The purpose of the event is to seek facts and expertise to educate the public regarding the potential challenges and benefits that offshore energy exploration would present to Florida.”
   
The Florida Forum will be held Wednesday, Oct. 28th from 7-9 p.m. at Florida State University. The magazine said, “Debate will proceed between two panels of highly respected and credible experts, including three proponents and three opponents of the proposal.”

As the U.S. eyes solutions to the energy problem, other countries are doing the same. Ironically the U.S. often funds endeavors abroad,  by loans like those to Brazil and to financiers like Al Gore. The Wall Street Journal reported, “A tiny car company backed by former vice president Al Gore has just gotten a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid sports car in Finland that will sell for about $89,000.”